Gov. Brad Little travels world to sell Idaho products

Idaho’s best salesman — and top elected official — just got back from a diplomatic and trade mission to several European countries and is about to lead a trade mission to Taiwan and Hong Kong. In between, he also found time to sign a trade agreement with Taiwan for Idaho wheat.

Europe

Gov. Brad Little left on Sept. 14 for a six-day trip where he visited the Basque country in Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland, including promoting collaboration between Idaho and Basque energy companies, meeting with cold storage company NewCold to talk about its Burley freezer and meeting with Glanbia, Idaho’s largest dairy processor, which is headquartered in Kilkenny, Ireland.

For example, an advanced manufacturing research facility in Bilbao, Spain, with a focus on automotive technology could provide synergy with Idaho’s Silverdraft, Little said.

“I had no idea of the advanced manufacturing research they had in Bilbao,” he said, adding that if he’d known, he’d have taken Silverdraft with them.

NewCold, which opened its $90 million, 180,000-square-foot facility in the state on June 6, might build another freezer facility in Idaho, Little said.

“That’s why we’re romancing them,” he said, noting the state’s ease of doing business. “In the time it took them to permit their big freezer in France, they built the one in Burley.”

The company has one other U.S. facility, in Tacoma, Washington.

In Ireland, Little met with 12 companies, with the result that a liquor manufacturer could come to Idaho, he said. He also met with two technology companies and several dairy manufacturers.

“I’m sure something’s going to happen there,” he said.

Glanbia has five facilities in Idaho, including its Cheese Innovation Center in Twin Falls, drawn by the region’s dairy and food processing industry.

Taiwanese wheat agreement

Back home, Little signed a letter of intent on Sept. 24, in the Idaho Statehouse for the Taiwan Flour Mills Association to purchase $576 million of wheat over the next two years. That’s 1.8 million metric tons or 66.1 million bushels. Taiwan imported nearly $4.3 billion worth of U.S. farm products in 2018. The country is the fifth-largest market for U.S. wheat, according to a press release issued by the governor’s office.

Former Gov. C. L. “Butch” Otter signed a similar agreement in 2017.

“We’ve been selling them wheat since the 1970s,” Little said.

Tariffs haven’t been a major problem because Idaho hasn’t been selling a lot to China other than garbanzos, whey and a few other commodities.

“Whey was our first product,” Little said.

The country uses the whey in products such as cookies and protein bars.

Taiwan trip

Later this month, Little is leading a trade delegation to Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Little started leading trade missions as lieutenant governor, taking 12 to 18 companies overseas to help sell their products. Taiwan is Idaho’s fourth-biggest trading partner, with Idaho companies such as Melaleuca, as well as wheat farmers, having strong relationships with the region, he said.

Idaho also recently received $400,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s State Trade Expansion Program (STEP). The Department of Commerce uses this money to help small businesses develop their export businesses overseas. For example, the state has sent Idaho companies to aeronautics shows and on previous trade missions to Taiwan. Since 2011, the STEP program has awarded approximately $157 million in grants nationwide, according to a press release.

Little, who was accompanied by Commerce director Tom Kealey and Agriculture director Celia Gould, also visited innovation technology company Tecnalia to identify ways to build on existing partnerships between Tecnalia, Idaho businesses and the Idaho National Laboratory in the area of energy research. Other stops included Neiker Food Technology in Vitoria, a Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development, to discuss ways to build on existing collaboration between Idaho and the Basque Region in agricultural innovation and Tolsma-Grisnich, a Dutch company operating in Idaho that develops storage and processing solutions for agricultural products.